


Camp Camp Mental Hospital AU

by Kuhma



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: Fluff, I had to add some pure crazy fluff in this, I'm sorry people, Mental Disorders, Mental Health Issues, Mental Hospital AU, Slow Burn, dont hate me plez
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-02
Updated: 2017-11-23
Packaged: 2019-01-28 14:22:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 9,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12608580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kuhma/pseuds/Kuhma
Summary: Max has a breakdown at his dear mothers party, and ends up in the middle of mentally ill preteens.Mental Hospital AU is based on my personal experiences in a mental hospital.





	1. Max's Breakdown

**Author's Note:**

> So, I first used this idea in an animatic I made on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT7VV7vnK44  
> And now I'm writing a fanfic about it  
> Yay
> 
> Follow me on instagram for updates @kuhma_

Max sat quietly by the snack table. All the other kids were playing badminton outside and the grown-ups were laughing mellowly about their mischief at work. Max could feel a thumping head ache in the side of his head. Staring off to the distance with dull eyes, he took another chip and crumbled it on the table. Suddenly he was snapped out of it by his dear mother, who yanked him by the sleeve. Max almost fell down from the high chair, and his mother pulled him after her to the kitchen. 

“What do you think you are doing, Max?” his mother asked in a stern, borderline angry voice. Max didn’t answer, but stared down on her dear mothers red high heels. He let out a howl when his mother tugged on his messy hair. “I told you to brush your ugly hair, you little brat! Why are you ruining my party? You know this is important to me! You just don’t care about anyone else but yourself!” She went on with her list of how Max made the world such an awful place. Max mumbled something, and her mother plugged her mouth and put her hands on her hips. “What did you mumble? You know I hate mumbling!” Max rubbed his shoulder and was about to turn away when he was pulled up by his hand. “I said--!” 

“My head hurts!” Max shrieked. His eyes were watering and knees were weak. His mother turned up her nose and pushed him against the wall. “That is no reason to sit around and ruin my expensive silken table cloth!” Max hugged himself and was shivering because his headache got worse by every wail her mother let out. When she didn’t get an answer, she started to rub her face. She lowered her hand, and slowly pulled the nearest drawer open. She lifted a pair of scissors from the drawer and lifted them to her face. Voice trembling, she threw the scissors in her dear sons face, and said sternly: “If you can’t be of any use, get rid of yourself like your no-good father.” Max covered his face from the projectile, and was left shaking in the kitchen. He let out a sigh, and stared at the scissors on the floor. Trembling he picked the up the scissors. He was scared. Scared of the fact that he didn’t care anymore. So he did as his dear mother asked.

After a while Max’s mind started to blur. He could remember a woman scream, his mother jerk him around, screaming something about how he was ruining everything, and a man, who lifted him from the blood coated floor. Max tightly gripped on the man’s shoulders and let out a heaving breath before blacking out.


	2. Mental Institution Of Campbell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max's first encounters with the other patients
> 
> Mental Hospital AU is based on my own experiences in mental hospitals.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> follow me on instagram for updates @Kuhma_

Max sat in the back of the ambulance with his teddy on his lap. The duffle bag with couple of pieces of clothes and a toothbrush was sitting next to his bench. A man sitting in front of him was writing something on a clip board. Max was staring at him, clinging on his teddy with his wounded arms. The man looked up, wrinkles in the sides of his eyes deepening when he smiled kindly. “Is this your first time at an institution?” Max puckered his lips and was clenching on his teddy with his dear life. 

“Yes.”

The man closed his tired eyes in a gentle smile. “You have nothing to worry about. This place is there to help you.” Max snorted, choking on his own arrogance. “I didn’t think I should before you said that.” That was a lie. He was internally losing it. He looked away and tried to hide his nausea. It wasn’t easy for him to stay calm in the back of a windowless car, even if it was an ambulance. He could feel the car turn a couple of corners, and soon was stopping. He stared at the driver and the man change couple of words. The driver jumped out and soon the side door was opened. There was a warm summer breeze outside the car, and Max slowly walked down the steps. He looked up at an old stone building. It was white like a hospital should be, and the surroundings were covered in beautiful trees. It would be an esthetic place, if it wasn’t for what it truly was. The man guided Max up couple of step to a door. He pushed a door bell, and a faint jingle played inside. Soon a bit too enthusiastic man walked to open the door with a key tag. A small buzz could be heard from the key compartment, and the brown-haired guy pushed the door open, and smiled at the ambulance man. “Thank you for bringing him safely.” The man tipped his hat, and the nurse let Max walk in the lobby. Max looked around, anxiety bubbling in his chest.

The man patted on Max’s back, scaring him and causing a small scene in the rubber floored lobby. “Oh my, I’m so sorry, eheh…” The man rubbed the back of his head, and gave his other hand to be shaken. Max looked at his hand and back at him with false disgust in his face. He ended up giving his hand to be shook, seeing no other way out of this. “I’m David, I’m your personal nurse!” Max stared at him, holding his teddy against his chest. David’s smile faded a bit, and he continued: “And you’re Max, right?” Max turned up his nose and said aloof: “Who else?” David let out a forced laugh, and after standing there holding hands for an awkwardly long moment, David quickly pulled his hand away and walked over to a closet. “We leave shoes here, so if you just would…” His voice faded, and Max slowly pulled off his sneakers and stuffed them in the small room.

Max followed David up a locked away set of stairs, which led up to another locked door. Max couldn’t help but to think why this place was so secure. People probably would run away otherwise, he gathered. David whistled as he opened the last door, which led to a hallway that had an opening to a lounge. The lounge had a table, two sofas, and a television. And a ploutonia of tired looking preteens   
Max sniffled, and walked through the door to stand before the other patients peering at him. Max started straight away go through what kind of people he was send to be with. Four of them were sitting around a round table. Two girls and two boys. The girl closest to Max had glasses and was snuggled up in a blanket, her body shivering and the other one of the boys was flipping a pack of cards, staring straight into Max’s eyes. Max stared back at him for a second, getting a clear image that the boy was absolutely mad. Two of the members of the round table were both fidgeting and whispering at each other. The other one was an older girl, who was clearly very under nourished and the other one was a tall and also skinny boy with a bowl cut. The boy looked like he was trying to make a perfect circle out of a pack of cards, a different card game from the other boy. Max squinted his eyes in a slight confusion, and dragged his look towards a sofa, that was a host to two boys. Other one was staring on the floor with face frozen to a disgusted look. His detached look was really odd for someone so strong looking. The other boy with black hair was staring at Max with an angry look, like he would’ve been interrupted in the middle of a heated conversation. Apparently he was, because soon he turned his look back at a nurse with a reddish hair, that was trying to control a boy, who was playing on the floor with a rocket ship. The boy was only one making noise besides the whispering of the boy and the girl. He was quietly wailing something about going to space. The boy on the sofa started yelling at the woman how unfair this place was. “You pump us full with medication and expect us to keep living like nothing was wrong?? You people are snakes!” The redhaired woman looked at David with desperate look, and David cleared his throat, pushing Max along through the living room to another hallway, that led to a row of rooms.

“This is your room, I’ll keep the bag for now but go check it out.” David was talking hastily and pushed Max towards the closed door and ran off to the living room. David’s faint voice could be heard from the lounge, trying to calm everyone down. A high-pitched girls’ laughter suddenly erupted in the lounge, and Max decided he wasn’t going to get mixed in it. He opened the door and walked into a room with four beds. They were station among closets, and the only bed that didn’t look like it had been used was on the right side of the room. Max let out a loud, wavering sigh, and threw his teddy gently on the bed. He dragged his hand over the navy-blue cover. He looked up to a wall, that was filled with text. He shook his head and rubbed his wet eyes. He looked at his hoodie covered wrists. He rolled his eyes and pulled the hoodie over his head. Gauzes covered both of his wrists, his eyes wandering up and down his arms. Suddenly he heard a small yelp from behind him, and he threw his hands behind his back and quickly turned his body towards a bed with a fuzzy haired boy sitting on it. He stared at him with a mix of tiredness and shock. He was sitting with his arms around his legs, that were folded against his chest. Max let his guard down, and turned back towards his bed. “You scared me” Max mumbled and rubbed the silken cover. The lack of answer made Max turn back towards the boy, who had pushed his face against his arms. Seeing that he wouldn’t be much of a conversationalist, he puckered his lips and stared at the wall 

Suddenly an alarm started yelling, and Max looked at the boy, who had also lifted his head. “What is going on?” Max asked shocked and the boy just gently got up and walked out, like this was a daily drill for him. They walked out of the room to see David, the other nurse and the patients. Correction, some of the patients.


	3. Alarm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alarms go off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> follow me for updates @Kuhma_

David was counting the youngsters, flashing an uneasy smile at Max. “Everyone should be here now, Gwen” David said softly yet rigidly. The other nurse nodded, and tried to calm the ‘space’ kid, who was running around the hallway. The boy from the table was mumbling to himself, and the girl with the glasses had sat down besides the wall and was rubbing her face. The boy and girl who were whispering before were standing a little further, moving their legs in an odd manner, like they couldn’t stay still. The boy from Max’s room had took a stand in one of the corners, and he had put his arms inside his turtleneck sweater. Max looked around, and saw that two of the children weren’t there. The boy who had been yelling at Gwen and the other boy from the sofa. 

The alarms stopped after a while, but they still weren’t let into the lounge. Max had taken a seat on a chair, that was near the two fidgety patients. They were whispering, and Max could hear parts of a sentence here and there. “…did they let you in the… yeah, but it’s good… I know you think so but… they really don’t care about us… David and Gwen are different…” Max turned his look towards the space kid and the boy and girl from the table. They were all mumbling at each other, but they were talking at completely different things. The space kid was snort-laughing and swatting the air around his face, and the glasses was murmuring something about how her kingdom was going to perish without her. The card boy pulled a napkin from his  
pocket and when David saw this he ran up to him and gently took it from him. “Harrison, you know now isn’t the best time for your magic tricks.” Harrison stared at him with face twisted in confusion, but he turned his look to the ground and let his shoulders flop. David smiled meekly and put the napkin in his pocket. Max follow this happen and was seriously confused. Mostly about how he was going to fit in with these lunatics.

Soon after the door to the lounge opened, and a guard let them in. The two boys were sitting on the sofa like nothing had happened, expect the black-haired boy had an ice bag over his eye. Max’s nose wrinkled and his heart flipped a beat. Everyone else got calmly back to their positions, and Gwen walked off to the office to talk with the other nurses. David looked back at the hallway and frowned. He walked back in the rooms, and the patients were left alone. Max’s furrowed his brows and he slowly walked over to the table, thinking it was the safest bet, and took a seat besides Harrison. “What on the earth happened there?” Max exclaimed at the people around the table, and the jittery teens looked at each-others. Harrison and girl with the glasses didn’t really seem to react. “It was Nikki again.” the older girl finally said. Max looked at her with thrown look. “Who’s Nikki?” The tall boy looked over his shoulder at the wall, which didn’t make any sense to Max, and said: “It’s this girl. You may look around this place and think there’s a lot of crazy people, but she is probably the craziest.” Max raised his eyebrow. “She’s the one that caused the alarm?” They both nodded at the same time and looked at each other. “She joined forces with Dolph,” the girl pointed at the boy with an ice bag, “and made Nurf loose his shit.” Max stared at the boy who was staring out the window, both surprised and not that he was the one to pull his guns out. Max looked back at them a little scared, and was about to ask them something, but noticed that they were staring at Max’s arms, that were crossed over the table. He looked down and realized that his completely packages hands were there to be seen by everyone. He quickly pulled them under the table, and the girl said quietly: “Gnarly.”

Max scowled and let out a snarl. “Who says gnarly anymore?” he said angrily, but it came out as a whimper. The girl snorted. “I’m Ered.” She started pointing out people in the room. “This is Preston, they are Nerris and Harrison,” Harrison looked up, but not at them, like he realized his name was said, but didn’t know where it came from, “Those are Nurf and Dolph, as I said before, and that’s Space Kid.” Max looked at her with his eyebrows knitted. “Space Kid?” Preston let out an odd laugh and explained: “Nobody really knows his name, because even the nurses call him that.” Max kept up the interrogation. “Why?” They looked at each other again, and lifted their shoulders. “We think it’s because he flips if you call him by his real name, but we aren’t sure.”

Max let this all sink in, and soon David walked back in the lounge with the boy from Max’s room. He stayed standing in the door frame, and David invited him to sit next to him. He shook his head, and looked like he was on verge of tears. “Come on Neil, you got so far.” Neil looked around, and soon slowly walked over to the sofa to sit next to David. David smiled gently, and looked up at the patients. “Okay children, I know what just happened must’ve been scary,” nobody reacted,” but it’s all fine now. We just have to go on with our—” David’s look had wandered over at Max, and he let out a yelp. “Eh, Max, could you come with me for a moment?” David escorted him to the hallway, and kneeled to Max’s height. “Max… we here at Campbell don’t want to disturb other patients, so may I ask you to go put on a long-sleeved shirt?” Max looked at him with dumbfounded, but then realized what he was talking about. Max put his hands behind his back and nodded, walking over to his room. He walked to his bed, and took the hoodie, pulling it over his head. When he got his head out of the hole, he got scared by Neil running past him to his bed. “Geez, Neil, you keep scaring me” Max said playfully angry. Neil didn’t answer. He pulled the blanket over his head and was left a boy sized lump under the covers. Max rolled his eyes and walked out to the hallway. He leaned against the nearest stone wall, and sighed. “What have I got myself into?”


	4. The craziest of the patients

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max meets Nikki.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> follow me for updates on instagram @kuhma_

The day went by surprisingly slowly for such a wild start. Max had sat to the table, and took some notes of things went around there. First thing he noticed was that only two nurses that were there for most time were David and Gwen. He only saw couple of other nurses when they went to the bathroom or to the coffee room. Also, the bathrooms were locked. At first Max didn’t get why, but when Preston went to the bathroom, David had to go with him. Max didn’t understand, but after a minute or so he could hear faint noises from the bathroom and when Preston came back his knuckles were red. Max furrowed his brow at Preston, who held his hands together and checked them for a minute even after the bathroom break. He went as far as to ask Ered if she thought they were ‘dirty’. Max didn’t get why he would think that.

Whenever the nurses left the room, Ered would get off his chair and try to move in place as much as she could. Preston and Max would exchange looks, Preston saying with his eyes not to ask. Harrison was telling them about a huge magic trick he was going to do when his ‘guy’ brought him the elephants he had asked for. Max looked at him like he had never heard anything crazier. But then Nerris chimed in with her stories of the blue elephant her kingdom was famous for. At one point she got up and started to yell at Harrison that he was not a true wizard, and Harrison got up and walked off to his room yelling after him that they would hear about this insult in the news. Max had hard time wrapping his head around why they were acting like this. When he asked Preston, he said: “People here don’t care if we take our medication, so most of them are in a constant state of madness.” Max was confused at first, and then thought what if he got medication as well. He shook his head and looked over at Dolph, who was knitting something, and for a while seemed to be actually calm. Space Kid had been invited downstairs to some kind of meeting. Nurf was up to his usual; staring on the floor. 

Max was trying to rip a circle out of a napkin when suddenly he could hear laughter and constant stream of talking coming from the end of the hallway. Everyone looked at each other, even Nerris looked up and covered her ears. Max looked over at Ered and Preston, and they mouthed: “Nikki.”

Max intensively stared at the doorway, waiting to see what this nutjob looked like. Finally a bluehaired girl skipped through and sniffed the air in. “Ahhh.. Good to be back.” She was around the same age as Max, and didn’t look too weird, expect for the baggy and tired eyes. “Hey Dolph, we had a great discussion yesterday, I knew we could make a difference--- OH MY GOD is that a black eye? That’s so sick! Hey I want pizza, could we get pizza, let’s get pizza tonight, can I get a phone I’m going to order a pizza…” She yapped so fast and all she said didn’t really corelate to anything. She sat down between Nurf and Dolph, Dolph rolling his eyes and throwing his knitting on the floor, but as soon as she saw Max she jumped back up and screamed: “Holy shit, new meat!” David hussed her and said: “Language.” Nikki didn’t even seem to hear him, and straight away jumped to sit beside Max. “Hey hey, my name is Nikki, it’s like a Nikky but with and I. And I,” she elongated the ‘I’,” want to know when we are having dinner, hey David when are we having dinner?” David was about to answer, but Nikki had already jumped to the next thing. “We should honestly paint the walls yellow, don’t you guys agree, it would really make the depressed peeps really not depressed. Holy fuck did I just come up with a solution to depression? I need to write a book, “Yellow, the color of not depression!” Max couldn’t believe his ears. Was this girl for real? She didn’t stop talking to even breathe, and constantly jumped up to walk around. Max buried his face and mumbled: “I have to deal with this the whole time?” Ered and Preston nodded, and Max scowled loud. 

When Space Kid came back up from downstairs, he started to play with Nikki. Nikki was totally invested in the stories of Space Kid. Just kidding, they talked over each other and scribbled stuff on a pile of papers. At least she sat down for a moment. Max just wanted these two weeks to be over. Nikki, instead seemed to be on the top of the world.


	5. How Nikki ended up in Campbell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nikki's story of how she ended up in the Campbell

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> follow me for updates on instagram @kuhma_

Nikki’s story

Nikki ran around in her living room, yelling that the commies can get it. “Commies?” her mother asked, barely having the energy to care. “Yeah, I heard it in a movie. The movie was about a war, I think, and you know what, war is such shit, like who has the time kill each other, well I understand if you really hate them, I mean people keep telling me to kill someone, but you know, I don’t really feel like it.” The babbling went on, and her mother rubbed her forehead, sloughing on a chair. She took a long drag of her cigarette, and stumped it on a small jar filled with cigarette butts. “Hey mom, can I have one?” Nikki asked leaning on the table. “Sorry girl, that was the last one.” Nikki’s shoulders flopped, but soon she was jumping around again. Her mom lifted herself up from the chair, rubbing the back of his neck and walking off to her room. “Go to bed Nikki…” she said meekly and Nikki grinned behind her. She tried to walk in the room after her, but she had locked the door, leaving the hyper girl to run around on her own. 

“You know what,” Nikki said out loud. “I’m gonna go get some cigs for us.” And so she made her way to the street, without any shoes of money. Not that money would’ve made a difference. She skipped her way towards a small kiosk. On her way she stopped to talk to random people, who had to rip themselves out of the conversation. 

Nikki walked in to the store, and smiled at the cashier. “Hey cashlady, I haven’t seen you before, are you new, I know everyone around here and you are definitely new.” The woman stared at her befuddled. “Hey, could you give me some cigarettes? My mom ran out and I wanted to help her, also because I only had two today and I don’t feel too well.” The woman was mortified at this point, and said: “I can’t sell to a girl as young as you, and where is your mother, it’s 11pm?” Nikki swayed her hand back and forth and laughed. “Pfft, it’s fine, all I need is some cigarettes, the ones with the red thing. The red ones, yeah.” The woman had walked out from behind the counter, and kneeled to Nikki’s level. “Do you know your mothers number? I think we should get you home.” Nikki pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes. “If I’m not getting the cigs, let me at least take some candy, I’ll pay you back when I come back, I promise, you can trust me, seriously I’m the most trust worthy person.” The woman got up and walked behind the counter. “Stay there, little girl, I’m going to call some people who can help you.” Nikki shook her head and laughed. “No, no I just have to get the cigs, and I can walk back home, It’s not that far, seriously it’s like right there.” The woman wasn’t listening, so to get her attention, Nikki crawled on the counter. “So, can I have some candy? I haven’t eaten in, like, all day, and I could use some chocolate. Chocolate is really good. Oh shit, you have tootsie rolls, scratch the earlier, I’ll get those.” The woman was on the phone, whispering to the speaker, and when she saw Nikki teetering on the counter, she yelled and tried to grab her hand. Nikki jumped over a ticket booth, and accidently pushed it down from the counter. “Yeah, let’s play tag, oh, and also the floor is lava!” Nikki jumped from the table to a shelf, knocking it over. She was laughing and yelling: “Fuck the commies! USA, USA, USA!” The woman was screaming on the phone. “She is knocking stuff over, this crazy kid is out of control, I need help!”   
*  
Nikki was sitting on the back of a police car, chattering to the police on the front. He was completely tuned out, sometimes letting out a murmur of agreement just so Nikki wouldn’t start to poke him. The other police walked in the car, and said to the other cop: “We are going to the ER. This girl is clearly not okay, we need a doctor’s evaluation.” Nikki wasn’t listening, she was singing a song she was coming up on the spot.   
And so the doctor at the ER made an involuntary admission to the institution of Campbell, and after that Nikki was escorted to the hospital with an ambulance.


	6. The doctor will see you now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max gets to meet the head doctor of Campbell

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is the point I decided to start the awful, awful slow burning fluff between Max and Preston, go yell at me in the comments how I shouldn't
> 
> follow me for updates on instagram @kuhma_

After a long day of listening to some crazy preteens, Max was more than happy to get to his bed and hopefully fall asleep. Everyone stayed up until 10 pm, and then they had to move to their bedrooms. Max’s bedroom was shared with Neil, Preston and Dolph. Max walked over to his bed and started to pull the covers up, but then Preston coughed and poked Max. “That’s actually my bed.” Max looked befuddled at firsts, but then shook his head. “I’m sorry, I just thought… All these other beds look used.” Dolph pointed at a bed besides Neil’s, and said: “That one isn’t in use. It used to be this kid Scotty’s bed, but he isn’t here anymore.” Max looked at the messy bed and looked back up. “Why didn’t anyone make the bed?” Dolph scoffed and Preston smiled while pulling the covers carefully off. “They don’t care about stuff like that.” Max wrinkled his nose, but decided to not to question it. He took off his shirt and pulled his teddy in to a hug. He lifted his covers over him, and was left staring at Preston who was taking off his pants and changing into a huge shirt, that covered him up to his knee. 

Max didn’t know how late it was, but he couldn’t fall asleep. He could hear the soft snoozing of Neil, and it made him so jealous. Rubbing his face, he sat up and stared through a moonlit window. Max sighed, and looked down on his teddy. Suddenly a quiet voice asked: “You can’t sleep?” Max shifted his eyes over the room, and soon realized it was Preston. He was laying completely still under neatly set sheets. “Yeah, no.”

Max gazed at the other boy, and asked: “You can’t either?” He shifted slightly under his covers. “I can, but I wake up really often.” Max nodded, even if he couldn’t see it. Suddenly Dolph yelled from the other side of the room: “Shut up already, some of us are trying to sleep!” Max and Preston looked at each other, and even Neil lifted his head a bit. They all got back to their quiet nights, waiting for the morning to come around.

David pulled Max with him after the breakfast. “We have a time with the doctor now,” he told Max as they walked to the hallway next to the dining hall. “Okay… what are we going to talk about with him?” Max asked, trying to sound aloof but his voice failed him. David smiled at him, and said: “Well, first of all we are going to check on your condition, and then we are going to talk about possible medication and how long you should stay here.” The blood rushed to Max’s’ head when he heard the word ‘medication’. “Why do I need medication?” David rubbed his neck and quickly answered: “You might not! But it’s up to the doctor.” Max groaned and sat on to a chair in the hallway. 

Soon the door opened, and a gray-haired man showed up on the doorway. He invited Max in with a handshake and said: I’m Cameron Campbell.” Max muttered his name and walked up to a chair next to his desk. David sat next to him and smiled widely. “So, you were sent here on an involuntary admission. How has your first day been?” Max closed his eyes and sighed. “I honestly don’t think I belong here with these looneys.” Campbell laughed, not realizing Max was being serious. “You might feel that way, but this is the best place for young people with problems with their mental state.” Max looked up, his eyebrows knitted. “Yeah, but these people are way over my league! These people are the serious shit, I’m nothing like them!” Cameron rubbed his chin, and leaned on his chair. “But you did try to kill yourself, am I not correct?” Max looked at his hands, and pursed his lips. “Yeah, but it was just a one-time thing!” The doctor looked at Max with an eyebrow lifted. “Unfortunately, we can’t be sure about that. That is why we will keep you here for two weeks under surveillance.” Max’s mouth gaped, and he started flailing his hands. “I don’t belong here! Why would you keep me here against my will?” David took a hold of Max’s hands, and pulled them down. “I’m sorry Max, but that’s the law. We can’t let you out when you’re under an involuntary admission.” Max’s’ eyes wandered back and forth them, and finally he groaned, not letting his tears show. Campbell waited that the moment had calmed down, and continued. “Do you have any sleeping issues?” Max was staring at the floor, and nodded slightly. Campbell looked at some papers, and finally said: “We are going to assign you some sleeping pills for now.” Max looked up. That isn’t too bad, he thought. But then Campbell continued: “And also antidepressants.” Max furrowed his brow, and looked at David. David lifted the corner of his mouth in a compassionate way. Max rolled his eyes and choked on a cry. Rubbing his eyes, he nodded and was dismissed by the doctor.


	7. Lunch Time Madness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lunch time rolls in and Dolph has some opinions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> follow me on instagram for updates @kuhma_
> 
> Go check out a new animation with Harrison! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GopKCrvVKU

After the meeting with the doctor Max and David headed back upstairs, and Max took a seat at his usual place. Harrison tried to show off his magical abilities with a pack of UNO cards, and Max was trying to tell him that half of the cards were the same, but Harrison was having none of it. He threw the cards on the ground and when Gwen told him to pick them up, he tried to do it with his mind. Preston gave in and picked the cards up. “You shouldn’t need to pick up someone else’s mess,” Max pointed out and Preston just raised his shoulders and twitched a little. “I want to.” Max rolled his eyes, and got up to help him.   
After the cards were neatly stacked, they continued their routine. Ered mentioned that Max didn’t seem too crazy, “well, I can’t be sure since you did, you know…” she added and did a cutting motion on her wrist. “I know, right? I’m way out of your league.” Preston and Max exchanged looks, Preston looking borderline sad. He was tapping his fingers in a pattern against the armrests, and Max looked away, rubbing his bandages. 

After an excruciatingly long hour the lunch rolled in, and they walked down the stairs to the eating lounge. They had to wait in the hallway while they prepped Preston’s and Ered’s meals, and a nurse Max had never seen before was sitting on a bench, looking at his phone. Meanwhile the patients were running around, Space Kid and Nikki going wild over a plant that, quote, looked really good for healing broken bones. Nerris joined them and started ripping off leaves to create a potion later. It went as far as Nikki munching on a leaf, when they were finally called to eat. David pulled the three maniacs off from the plant, and looked over at the other nurse, who didn’t even look their way. David sighed and walked them over to the dining hall.   
Preston, Max, and Dolph sat on the same table, and David joined them on the fourth seat. Preston jumped up to look at the menu for the week, and came back frowning. “Hey David… This isn’t the creamy sauce in here, is it?” Preston asked and pointed at his plate. David put his fork down and swallowed. “I think it is.” Preston started to wiggle around in his chair and said: “I can’t eat this. You know cream is not in my special diet.” David cleared his throat and looked at him compassionately. “This was in your meal plan, so we can’t change it” David told him softly. When he saw that Preston was getting more angsty, he followed it up with: “It’s probably not even cream! Hospitals don’t have the money to put in something so fancy.” He let out a nervous laugh, but Preston was already tearing up. “I can’t eat cream, I can’t. Cream isn’t on my diet. Can’t you make another plate?” Preston was trembling, and David and Gwen exchanged looks. “Preston, we can’t make another plate for you, this is in your meal plan,” Gwen said from another table. Everyone had stopped, looking at Preston. Nikki snorted and asked: “Why can’t you eat cream? Is it because it’s too good?” She licked her fork and let out a loud moan. “Nikki!” Gwen hissed. 

“Why can’t you just make another plate? It’s not that hard!” Dolph joined the conversation, clearly pissed. Nikki started to bounce on her chair and yelled: “Yeah! Fight the authority!” Dolph crossed his arms and kept going: “Like you people force us to do things we don’t want to, this is child abuse!” David clearly got ready to jump up if the situation got out of hand. “Dolph, this doesn’t concern you.” Dolph scoffed and got up, smashing his hands against the table: “Not my problem?! I’m here too, and seeing you fuck with the patients just for fun is my problem!” David got up and was about to take a hold of Dolph, but before he could Dolph pushed the table over. Nikki was standing on her chair at this point, about to jump on the table, but Gwen stopped her by pulling her down and pushing her on the ground roughly. Max was looking this from the side eyes wide. He glanced at Preston who got up and ran away crying. David was holding Dolph, who was screaming how this place was hell. Then the real mess began. Nurf got up and smashed his plate on the ground, and started yelling, covering his ears. The alarm started to rang when David pushed a button on his necklace. Nurf turned around and tried to punch Space Kid, but he dodged and swatted the air around his face. “The aliens are invading,” he yelled running over to Gwen, hiding behind her legs. She was still holding Nikki who was trying to bite the nurses hand. Ered had ran after Preston, leaving her untouched plate to be smashed by Nurf. Harrison and Nerris were hugging each other and Harrison tried to do something with his hand, holding it in front of him. Was he trying to control Nurf with his mind? Max was standing against the wall, scared white. The guards ran in to witness the wild lunch break. They took a hold of Nurf, who was yelling and throwing the plates against the wall, and David let go of Dolph, who had ripped David’s sleeve trying to fight him. Gwen and David encouraged the kids to follow them to the hallway. Max ran in the front, running up to see Ered doing jumping jacks, and Preston who was standing against the wall, shaking and wailing. David ran over to Ered and stopped her from jumping, and Gwen gently took a hold of Preston’s shoulders, pulling him with the other kids to upstairs. Max followed them, swallowing his own tears. The screaming from the dining hall stopped as the door shut behind them, leaving them in the quiet, only sound was the sobbing of Preston. Neil was looking at them from the crack of the door. David noticed him and huffed. “We forgot you again, didn’t we?” Neil carefully walked out and didn’t answer. He took a stance in the corner and stared on the floor, pulling his arms inside his sweater. Max looked back, rubbing his arm. Dolph was the actual trouble maker of the group, he thought.


	8. How Dolph ended up in Campbell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The story of how Dolph ended up in Campbell. This chapter is pretty graphic, so if you aren't comfortable with that you can skip this one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> follow me for updates on instagram @kuhma_

Dolph was sitting in the backseat of his dad’s car. They were driving from school after Dolph had a breakdown during art class. He was muttering and banging his head against the door, his speech being complete salad and his father kept yelling at him how he was an embarrassment. “You keep acting like you’re ‘crazy’ or something! You should just stand up against the bullies and not pretend to lose your mind in the middle of the class! Do you know how embarrassing it is to walk in my own son’s school to get a wimp?” Dolph was scratching his arm hard and he looked behind them through the back glass. “And how dare they tell me to take you to the hospital, no son of mine is going near some doctor who wants to throw him away.” But Dolph couldn’t hear his father.

The voices in his mind were blurring out everything else. They were screaming, laughing, and telling Dolph what an awful person he was, how he couldn’t do anything. “Fuck you, I know, I don’t want to…” Dolph muttered, shivering hard. He felt like he wasn’t even in his body anymore, like he was floating above his head. He could hear a dog bark, and when he looked behind him, his mind froze. A faceless person was crouching in the back of the car, its head shaking madly. Dolph stopped breathing and held in a scream. His vision blurred, and he didn’t know where he was anymore. But when the creature started to whisper and reach out for him, he started to scream. He had to get out. And so he pulled himself off the seatbelt and opened the car door.

The father looked behind him, the moment froze when Dolph was jumping out of a car, that was speeding in the highway. He pushed his foot down on the brakes, but it was too late. Dolph was rolling down the side of the road, and the car behind them nearly crashed on their car. The horns were yelling loud, but his father couldn’t hear anything. He jumped out of his car, and started running. He ran faster than ever, tears flowing from his eyes. Dolphs body was twitching further down the road, he was still awake but not there. His father crashed on the ground, pulling Dolph into his arms. His face was completely smashed in, blood was gushing out of his mouth and nose. A tooth was hanging by a thread on his lip. His arms were twisted the wrong way, and his legs were scraped up. His dad trembled, pushing the boy’s hair off his face. A scream erupted from his lungs, and he hugged his boy tenderly, screaming how he was sorry. Other people started to gather, gasping and someone said they were calling the ambulance. Dolph was shivering hard and his eyes were wide and watering. He tried to gurgle against the voices with his blood coated mouth, but couldn’t. 

He was escorted to the hospital. His both arms and nose were broken, and he had lost a tooth. His legs had couple of fractures, and he had three ribs cracked completely. He was lucky the broken ribs didn’t puncture his lungs. Even with all the damage, he still didn’t realize where he was. The whole time in the hospital he was yelling about the faceless monster. When he had healed enough, he was escorted to Campbell.


	9. Go to your rooms

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Preston and Max talk after the crazy lunch time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> follow me for updates on instagram @kuhma_

David counted the youngsters, and heaved out. Gwen was talking on the phone, and David joined her. They whispered something to each other, and soon Gwen turned towards the patients. “Okay everyone, go in to your rooms, and don’t get out before we tell you to. Not even when you hear noise outside.” David shepherded Harrison and Space Kid in their room. Nerris scratched behind her ear, looking really freaked out. She pulled on Gwen’s sleeve, and asked if she would protect her. Gwen gave an empathetic smile, and after exchanging a look with David, she guided Nerris in her room. Max, Preston and Neil wandered in their room, Preston weeping and Neil walking to his bed, sitting in the corner of his bed and staring blankly on the floor. Max took a seat on the edge of his bed, and finally let out a couple of choked cries. He wiped his face off of the tears, and sniffed the sadness back in. Max noticed that Preston was left standing before the door, clicking and twisting the lock. He was sniveling, and got scared when Max walked up to him. Max jumped a bit too when Preston let out a yelp. Max stuffed his hands in his pockets and kept staring at Preston’s weird behavior. “Hey Preston… what was that back in the dining hall?” Max finally exhaled, scratching the back of his head and turning his head in slight confusion. Preston did the routine again, starting to tremble. “I’m sorry, Max… It’s my fault the freak out happened.” Max opened his mouth a little, and shook his head. “No, Preston—” “

“Max… I didn’t follow the program. I almost ate the cream. I didn’t follow the program. I didn’t—“ Preston whimpered, pushing his hands against his face. Max stared at him dazed. “I…” Max huffed, and looked at his arms, his gauzes. “I don’t know what’s wrong with most of you and what is going on here, but that is the craziest thing I’ve heard in these couple of days.” Max let out a soothing laugh, and Preston looked over his shoulder. He finally stopped doing the thing with the lock. Preston turned, and let a shy smile come across his face. Max lifted the side of his mouth, revealing his teeth in a pleased smile. Suddenly hollering filled the hallway, and Max and Preston looked towards the door. They rushed to the door, and opened it a small crack. They saw limp Nikki, who was still laughing quietly being dragged off to a room on the end of the hallway. Dolph was being hauled the same way, and calm-as-usual Nurf walked after them slowly. The guards walked up to David and the nurse from downstairs, and started talking to them. Preston shut the door and Max and him were left to stare at each other eyes wide. Max looked behind them, and saw Neil standing in the middle of the room, staring curiously at the door. After Max noticed him he panicked and ran back to his bed. Preston walked over to his bed, and flopped against the wall. Max followed lead on his bed, and they both sighed at the same time. “Why am I here?” Max muttered to Preston. “Because you’re crazy?” he said in a slightly questioning way. “Maybe, but isn’t this place a bit too rough for me? I mean isn’t there a place for people who aren’t this crazy?” Preston twiddled around with the corner of his shirt, and exhaled. “There is.” Max lifted himself and looked at Preston dumbfounded. “There is? But then what am I doing here?” Preston rubbed his hands, examining them. “Yeah… sometimes they bring kids who aren’t psychotic here when there aren’t beds available in the other unit.” Max stared at him with shock. "Are they fucking serious?!” Max yelled and Preston snorted. His puffy eyes followed an invisible path to Max’s eyes, and he quietly said. “I mean, is it that bad here?” Max’s heart skipped a beat, and he couldn’t bring himself to yell “Yes!” even though there was nothing he wanted to say more. They gazed at each other for a moment, and simultaneously they turned their eyes towards Neil, who was staring at them, a smile on his face, that faded away as soon as they looked at him. Neil started to avert their look and turned blushing red when they didn’t stop staring at him. He hid under the covers, and Preston and Max looked at each other like asking: “What was that?”


	10. The great vanishing trick

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The kids witness Harrison's 'magic trick'.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> follow me for updates on instagram @kuhma_

They were finally let out after the troublemakers were locked in the rooms in the end of the hall way. Max’s stomach felt like it was eating itself. They couldn’t go back to eat, but gladly David was nice enough to get them all some fruits and a plate of food for Ered. So their lunch proceeded in the living hall. Preston ate an apple after peeling the skin off with his fingers. Space Kid tried to eat a banana with the skin on, saying that he needed all the protein to keep up his health. Harrison and Nerris were eating apples as well. Nerris was so invested in her apple that when David tried to take the core of the apple from her she started to scream, yelling that the seeds were for the potion. David asked her what else she had for the potion and she went quiet. David shook the information out of her, going with her to her room and confiscating the leaves and a small cup of… soap? Ered finally finished her meal after half an hour, and David carried her plate back downstairs. While he was gone, Ered got up and started to do squats. Max stared at this going on and finally asked: “Shouldn’t someone stop you? I mean that’s not healthy.” Preston grimaced and Ered looked like she wasn’t even listening. “They should… But honestly, they don’t care. You could go knock on the office door, but they probably wouldn’t even open.” Max looked at him baffled. “What the hell is up with this place. How do they expect you to get better if they don’t even care?” Preston lifted his shoulders and he started to rub his face against his shoulder. “Some of us have been here half a year. The kid, Scotty, was sent home after he started to take his meds, even though he wasn’t any better. They send him away as soon as some process was made.” Max flopped against his chair scoffing in anger. “What about David and Gwen?” he asked turning towards Preston. “Oh, they’re the only ones who care. They only take a break once a week, and it’s on different days. Sometimes they take full day and night shifts just to keep an eye on us. They’re the good guys here.” Max thought of the overly positive man and the tired looking woman, and couldn’t help but think how grateful he was for people like them. 

When they heard the door lock being opened, Ered quickly jumped back on her chair and kept her legs moving. She was out of breath, but David didn’t notice it, because he started to look for Harrison. “Do you know where Harrison went?” he asked them. Nerris and Space Kid weren’t obviously listening, but Preston and Max started to look around. He wasn’t anywhere to be seen. “Oh, peanuts,” the nurse mumbled and ran off to hallway with the rooms. Not long after Harrison ran back in from the other hallway. He seemed oddly excited, he was swatting his hands around and looking all around with a borderline scared grin. He was murmuring about how he was going to show them all. He leaped in the middle of the room, and lifted his hand over his head. “Hello everybody!” He was staring at the empty sofa. “Today, I am going to show you an amazing trick! The great vanishing,” he twiddled his fingers in front of his face, “coins!” 

Preston, Ered and Max looked at each other confused, and Space Kid was jumping and clapping his hands, letting out a giggly laugh. Nerris wasn’t watching, she was scratching her elbows and rocking a bit. Harrison opened his hand, and showed everyone the pennies that were sitting on his palm. Then, he started to stuff them in his mouth. Max lifted himself from the slouching position and looked at him mortified. “What the hell are you doing?” He yelled, but Harrison was already swallowing them. He opened his eyes smiling, and looked like he was expecting some reaction from the empty sofa. He started to move his eyes back and forth the floor and the sofa, and looking scared. “W-what?” he asked. “No, I did it… They disappeared. They did!” He slowly started to yell, grabbing his head and starting to rock back and forth. He was about to lose his balance when David ran in, taking a hold of him and clutched the crying boy in his arms. “What happened?” he asked and looked eyes wide around the room. Space Kid looked confused and Max was in shock. “He found some pennies and he… he ate them” Preston said, leaning his head on his shoulder. David looked bewildered down on the crying and yelling mess that was Harrison, and gently shushed him. “We are going to go to the ER now. We need to get those coins out,” David rubbed his face giving a concerned smile. Harrison wasn’t listening, he was grabbing on to David’s coat and yelling that he had done it, that he didn’t understand. David took a stance on one knee, and lifted the boy in his arms. “Gwen is going to join you in a minute,” he said to the other patients, patting the side of Harrison in a comforting way. He ran to the office door and kicked on it. They couldn’t see him because he was on the other side of the wall, but soon they heard him yell: “FUCKING OPEN!” The door opened, and the nurses started to help David and Harrison down the stairs. Max looked at them walking down the stairs. Harrison was crying loud, and they were left in silence when the door shut. Harrison had just shown the true reason why these kids were there.


	11. How Harrison ended up in Campbell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The story of how Harrison ended up Campbell

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> follow me for updates on my instagram @kuhma_

Harrison sat on the edge of his bed. He was staring on the floor, eyes darting back and forth. His mind was cluttered with sounds. There were cheering, whispering and laughing. The room seemed small, like Harrison was a giant trapped in a space that was falling apart around him. He looked up and saw the conductor standing in the corner. His eyes were blurry, and Harrison could only focus on his mouth. “You have to do it. Prove yourself.” His words echoed, and Harrisons face twitched. He looked around, the people rising from the walls. Everyone was watching him. He had to show them his true magical powers. 

He grabbed the coins on his tableside, and rose them above his head. The people, or rather creatures, started to cheer. His gaze bolted around. The room fell around him, and he was standing on a stage, the crowd all around him cheering him on. He got up from his bed, and yelled: “Today, I am going to show you the great vanishing trick!” He heard another noise from behind him, but he ignored it. “I am going to make these coins… Disappear!” The crowd went crazy. Harrison’s shook violently, and he looked down on the coins. One at a time, he pushed them in his mouth. And then he swallowed. Every time the crowd gasped, and cheered after he swallowed. The conductor stood in the middle of the crowd, his mouth smiling wide with his sharp teeth. Harrison kept staring at him, and pushed another down his throat. Suddenly he could feel himself being grabbed, and the coin went into the wrong throat. The room started collapse as Harrison started to cough and choke. “You couldn’t do it,” the conductor teased. “You failed.”

Harrisons mother heard from downstairs Harrison shout, and she quickly put the laundry down and ran up the stairs. He stopped to knock on the door, and asked: “Harrison, honey, are you okay?” She waited a moment, but when only mumbling could be heard inside, she pushed the door open, and saw Harrison dropping a coin in his mouth. She gasped and ran up to him, taking hold of him. “Harrison, stop!” She yelled, but Harrison started to hack. His mother realized that he was choking and quickly put her hands around him and pushed the coin out of him by pumping his chest. He fell on the floor and kept coughing, it soon mixing in with crying. “No… I can do it… I can… I just…” His mother fell on her knees, hands over her mouth. “Harrison…” she whispered. Harrison fell on his side and took a hold of his stomach. “They disappeared… they did…” He tried to reach for the spit out coin, but his mother stopped him, wailing out: “Harrison, no! What is going on Harrison?! Harrison!” She shook Harrisons shoulders, and he looked at her. No, he looked through her. He didn’t even realize that she was there. He kept weeping, and his mother took a hold of him. “That’s it. We have to get help for you. I don’t care what your father says… We need to get you to the hospital…”


	12. Hiatus

Hey guys, I'm sorry for this hiatus but recently I got in to a social rehab, and it's this daily thing that's been really helpful for me. That's why I have less time to write, and when I get home I'm often too tired to write, or I'm working on my animation projects. I'll get back to this, but it might take a while. Ily all and all of your support is greatly appreciated ;w; Thank you for sticking around!


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